RIP: Reel Important People -- November 19, 2007

Ferdinando Baldi(1917-2007) - Italian filmmaker who co-directed David and Goliath, featuring Orson Welles (who directed his own scenes). He also directed Ringo Starr in the spaghetti western Blindman, wrote and directed the spaghetti westerns Texas, addio (Goodbye Texas aka Texas, Adios), Rita nel West (Crazy Westerners, aka Rita of the West), Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria (Forgotten Pistolero, aka Gunman of Ave Maria) and Django, Prepare a Coffin and co-directed Duel of the Champions and The Tartars (also starring Welles). He died November 12. (Film.it)

Michael Blodgett(1940-2007) - Actor and screenwriter who appears in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, There Was a Crooked Man ... and Roger Corman's The Trip. He co-scripted Turner & Hooch, Rent-a-Cop and 1991's Run, which starred Patrick Dempsey. He adapted his own novels, Hero and the Terror and The White Raven and choreographed the beach party pics A Swingin' Summer and The Catalina Caper. He was formerly married to Family Ties mom Meredith Baxter. He died November 14. (Bright Lights After Dark)

Ronnie Burns(1935-2007) - Former actor-turned-real estate investor who starred in Anatomy of a Psycho and appears in Bernardine. He was the adopted son of George Burns and Gracie Allen. He died of cancer November 14, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Michael Delahoussaye(c.1949-2007) - Cinematographer of They Still Call Me Bruce, Inner Sanctum and Across the Tracks, which starred Brad Pitt. He also shot many Playboy videos and was a camera operator on Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo, Dunston Checks In and U.S. Marshals. He died of multiple myeloma November 8, in Los Angeles. (Houston Chronicle)

Mervyn "Buck" Edwards(?-2007) - Location manager for The Muppet Movie, first assistant director on Richard Sarafian's The Bear and second assistant director on The Competition, which starred Richard Dreyfuss and Lee Remick. He died November 13. (LA Times)

Norman Erlich(1934-2007) - Argentine actor who appears in El Abrazo partido (The Lost Embrace), Catch the Heat and La Peste (The Plague), which starred William Hurt and Robert Duvall. He died of leukemia November 6, in Buenos Aires. (Variety)

Don Fellows(1922-2007) - Actor who plays military characters in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II, Eye of the Needle, Inside Out and Twilight's Last Gleaming. He also appears in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Velvet Goldmine, Pretty Poison, Haunted Honeymoon and The Omen. He died October 21 in London. (Telegraph)

Bernard L. Kowalski(1929-2007) - Director of the snake-themed horror pic SSSSSSS, which MSN last week called one of the worst-titled films of all time. He also directed Krakatoa, East of Java, Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Leeches. He was twice nominated for an Emmy for producing the series Baretta and he was apparently Brian Grazer's uncle. He died October 26 in Los Angeles. (Variety)

Deborah Lee(c.1949-2007) - Unit production manager for Sudden Death (and line producer), Murder in the First (also co-producer), Mad Dog and Glory, Scorsese's Cape Fear and Alfonso Cuarón's Great Expectations, for which she was also an executive producer. She also co-produced Imaginary Heroes and Scenes of the Crime and was the New York location manager for Prizzi's Honor. She died October 22 in Los Angeles (Variety)

Ira Levin(1929-2007) - Novelist who wrote the novels Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, Sliver, A Kiss Before Dying and The Boys of Brazil, all of which were turned into successful films, some of them more than once. He also wrote the plays-turned-movies Deathtrap, Critic's Choice and No Time for Sergeants. He died of a heart attack November 12, in Manhattan. (Variety)

Chip Monk(?-2007) - Camera person for Monster, Facing the Giants and The Waterboy. He died in a car accident November 11. (Day Rate for Chip)

Francine Parker(c.1926-2007) - Producer-director of the controversial antiwar documentary F.T.A., which follows Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and others on their infamous tour of Vietnam. She died of heart failure November 8, in Los Angeles. (LA Times)

Mario Sánchez(1936-2007) - Argentine actor who appears in Catherine's Grove and many films by Enrique Carreras, including El Profesor Punk and Los Extraterrestres. He died of diabetes November 7, in Villa Carlos Paz, Cordoba, Argentina. (Variety)

Sigrid Valdis(1935-2007) - Actress best known as the sexy secretary character "Hilda" on TV's Hogan's Heroes. She also appears as one of James Coburn's live-in playmates in Our Man Flint and with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in Marriage on the Rocks. She is also the widow of Hogan's star Bob Crane and was portrayed by Maria Bello in the Crane biopic Auto Focus. She died of lung cancer October 14, in Anaheim, California. (LA Times)

Monty Westmore(c.1923-2007) - Oscar-nominated make-up artist for Hook. He also worked on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Jurassic Park, Se7en, Chaplin, Rio Lobo, The Towering Inferno, Alien Nation, Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection, among many more. He worked many times for Robert Altman and for Paul Newman, and his father was Gone With the Wind make-up artist Monte Westmore Sr. He died November 13 in Woodland Hills, California. (Variety)

Masakazu Yoshizawa (c.1950-2007) - Japanese flautist who specializes in shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and appears as one of the Shamisen musicians in Memoirs of a Geisha. He's also prominently heard as a soloist in the score to that film, as well as in the scores to Jurassic Park, TMNT, The Joy Luck Club and the Karate Kid sequels. He died of stomach cancer October 24, in San Gabriel, California. (LA Times)

Peter Zinner(1919-2007) - Oscar-winning editor of The Deer Hunter; he was also nominated for The Godfather and An Officer and a Gentleman. Other films he edited include In Cold Blood, The Godfather: Part II and the recent documentary Running with Arnold. As a music editor, he worked on Sam Fuller's The Naked Kiss, Richard Brooks' Lord Jim and the American-release version of King Kong vs. Godzilla. Other roles include actor (in The Hunt for Red October), producer (of A Gun, a Car, a Blonde) and director (of The Salamander, which starred Anthony Quinn). He died after a long illness November 13, in Santa Monica, California. (LA Times)